Scarce 19th and 20th Century Stamps In Fine Condition at Bargain Prices *38 North West Pacific Islands1915-19 £1 ultramarine and brown.. 9.00 7.00 United States Twentieth Century ALL UNUSED Pairs, Strips or Blocks of most can be supplied at the same rate. Published Monthly by SCOTT Stamp & Coin Co., 33 West 44th St., New York City, N. Y. JOHN N. LUFF, Editor Vol. 4. No. 10 KENT B. STILES, Associate Editor HUGH M. CLARK, Manager NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1923 Issue No. 46 The issue number with which your subscription will expire is shown at left of address on envelope U The Month By John N. Luff NITED STATES: In "The Post- on the cover in the Berlin Postal Museum, age Stamps of the United States," written by our editor something over twenty years ago, the earliest known date of cancellation on a Saint Louis stamp is given as November 20th, 1845. This was on a ten cent stamp, at that time in the collection of Mr. H. E. Deats. That date can now be advanced by a few days. Mr. H. Sandberg writes that he has a Saint Louis stamp (denomination not mentioned), on original cover and cancelled "Nov. 16." The enclosed letter is dated "Nov. 15th, 1845." The issue of the 2c Harding stamp, imperforate, has been announced for November 15th. It will probably be in the hands of collectors some time before this Journal reaches them. Mr. Philip H. Ward Jr. informs us that the Postal Agency at Washington has decided to discontinue, after November 30th, the sale of United States stamps surcharged for use in the former Post Office at Shanghai. AZERBAIJAN: The provisional stamps are which we list in this number shown us by Mr. G. Uzekovsky. They are on letters addressed to New York and were cancelled at Baku on 8, 8, 23 and 4, 9, 23. BADEN: Despatches to the daily press report that, in the eighth auction of the Ferrari collection, November 7th, a copy of the 1851 error, the 9 kreuzers printed on green paper instead of rose, was sold for 120,000 francs. Presumably the government tax of 171⁄2 per cent is to be added to this amount. The catalogue illustration shows the stamp to have been on the original cover with a light cancellation of concentric rings. The cover also had the cancellation "Ettenheim, 25 Aug. 51." This identical cancellation appears which bears the first discovered copy of this error. There are only three genuine copies known of this rarity. The third, formerly in the Mors collection, is now the property of M. Theodore Champion. B ELGIUM: According to Champion's Bulletin Mensuel, a commemorative issue of stamps, from 1 centime to 10 francs, is to appear in 1924. The stamps will be line-engraved and an original die will be used that served for the issue of 1849. CHI HINA: There has been some discussion in the philatelic press about the $2 and $5 stamps of the 1913-18 type, overprinted with three Chinese characters. These were said to mean "Manchuria," but it was not understood for what reason or purpose the overprint had been applied. The matter seemed to be settled when Stanley Gibbons' Monthly Circular printed a letter from a Chinese correspondent who stated that "these stamps are only intended for use on money-orders, the overprint being in the nature of a control to prevent high value stamps stolen by brigands from being used on letters." At the same time, similar overprints were reported from various cities. This statement has not, however, been allowed to go unchallenged. Mr. A. W. Tyrrell, a London dealer, informs Stamp Collecting "that these stamps did come through the post, not par complaisance, but on every mail parcel to an ordinary firm. Altogether he had about fifty copies, the result of several purchases of 'office lots' from a certain City firm." Mr. Stanley Massman informs us that these overprinted stamps were used to pay postage on packages of furs sent to New York and that he purchased a considerable number of the stamps still attached to pieces of coarse cloth in which the furs had been |